TEXAS (KXAN) — Texas State University (TXST) will soon offer degrees at a satellite campus in Mexico, following approval by the Texas State University System’s Board of Regents Friday.
The agreement with the entity Texas State University Mexico (TXSTM) could lead to up to $10 million in revenue for TXST over the next two decades. That campus will be based in Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico, offering students the ability to earn Texas State degrees in the central Mexico city.
Per contract details, Texas State University Mexico will pay Texas State University at a rate of $18 per semester credit hour during the first year to cover “academic administration of the programs which will escalate over time.”
Dr. Kelly Damphousse, president of TXST, told a group of reporters the satellite campus project goes back about 10 years, adding that founders behind TXSTM were eager to collaborate on an American-style university.
In fall 2017, the Mexico-based school opened in partnership with Arkansas State University, starting with roughly 150 students. Now, there are about 1,000 students at the campus.
Approximately a year-and-a-half ago, when Damphousse joined TXST, he said the campus’ founder reached out and asked if TXST would have any interest in offering degrees that Arkansas State University didn’t have available.
Under the agreement, the Querétaro campus will hire the faculty and set the tuition rate for students, a TXST spokesperson told KXAN. The TXST degrees provided there will be done so with oversight from TXST faculty, Damphousse said.
“[The Querétaro campus] would hire the faculty down there and teach the classes there,” he said. “All the classes are taught in English, but it’d be a whole new set of degree programs that Arkansas State is not able to offer.”
Following board approval, Damphousse said TXST will work on recruiting students, with an eyed start date of fall 2025. While not finalized yet, some of the degrees TXST is pursuing include computer science, engineering, psychology, biochemistry and mass communications.
Beyond a presence in Mexico, Damphousse said the university is building relationships with countries around the world as part of a study abroad-esque effort. He said TXST is looking into a possible joint opportunity where TXST hosts students from global universities for two years, in turn allowing TXST students to study at those international locations for the same timeframe.